Johnson, Robert Underwood, 1853-1937

President Roosevelt tells Abby Gunn Baker that he feels that Lyon Gardiner Tyler should write to the White House to offer the portrait, and that it wouldn’t be proper for them to write to him asking for a gift. Roosevelt approves of the plan to hang the portrait, but the initiative should come from Tyler. Roosevelt refutes what Baker mentioned in her letter of a plan between Robert Underwood Johnson and Glenn Brown to add another story on the East Terrace of the White House in order to house a portrait gallery there. Roosevelt thinks doing this would be a great mistake architecturally, and says that while the White House can hold portraits of presidents and first ladies, others belong in the National Portrait Gallery.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-05

President Roosevelt thanks Frank Hall Scott for the interest, but reminds him that he told Robert Underwood Johnson that he did not believe he would be able to write such a history. Roosevelt maintains that if he writes anything, he wants it to be his best, and that he might not write anything at all after his African safari. If he does decide to write something, it will be only after much forethought.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-03

President Roosevelt asks Richard Watson Gilder, chief editor of The Century Magazine, to thank the publication’s associate editor Robert Underwood Johnson for the amusing story his son Owen Johnson wrote in the Saturday Evening Post. He also asks Gilder to have William Garrott Brown send a copy of his letter to him.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-12

Richard Watson Gilder, editor of Scribner’s Monthly, informs President Roosevelt about his struggle to highlight the latter’s presidency in one editorial. Gilder shares the closing paragraphs of the resulting work, a joint effort between himself and Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of The Century Magazine. He remarks that history will give credit to Roosevelt’s many accomplishments during his presidency.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-02-17

Richard Watson Gilder of Century is pleased with what President Roosevelt said about his memoirs, and hopes that he will start writing them after he finishes his articles on big game. He also suggests Roosevelt making a “survey of the globe” and writing for Century. Gilder informs Roosevelt that Robert Underwood Johnson will be attending the conference on conservation on behalf of the magazine.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-05-07

In this chapter excerpt from his book John Muir and His Legacy: The American Conservation Movement, Stephen Fox examines efforts to expand Yosemite National Park, the battle between preservationists and conservationists over the use of forests, and provides portraits of John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, John Burroughs, and Theodore Roosevelt. He looks at the work undertaken by the conservation movement to preserve Niagara Falls, the redwood forests of California, and Mount Desert Island in Maine. Fox concludes the chapter with a look at the battle over the city of San Francisco’s desire to build a dam at the southern end of Hetch Hetchy valley in Yosemite National Park. In addition to looking at the life and work of Muir, the chapter provides information on many lesser known figures in the turn of the twentieth-century conservation movement.

A listing of the officers and the members of the executive, finance, and Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace committees of the Theodore Roosevelt Association is found on the second page of the excerpt.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal